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Apple says you can't have freedom because you might be clumsy, evil, and a drug dealer

Submitted by John Sullivan on July 30, 2009 - 2:33pm

Apple's lawyers, led by David L. Hayes of Fenwick & West LLP, claimed
in comments submitted to the US Copyright
Office
that the Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) system on the iPhone is
necessary to combat drug dealers, safeguard the cell phone network,
and prevent you from hurting yourself.

They submitted these comments in response to the Electronic Frontier
Foundation's request that users be able to "jailbreak" their iPhones
-- which means circumventing Apple's DRM system so that they can
install their own applications, just like you can do on any other
computer and many other cell phones already.

Apple seems to have missed that last part -- just like you can do on
any other computer and many other cell phones already. Instead, they
claim that users removing the DRM system are criminals, who should be
prosecuted. They say that if you can modify your own phone -- as in,
if you install an application from anyone but Apple -- you might
deliberately bring down the whole cell network or make anonymous phone
calls to arrange drug deals. You might also break your phone.

I already have a phone that lets me do the kinds of things Apple is
talking about. It's nearly all free software -- the source code lives
in plain view in places like here and
here, if you want to see it. Some of my
friends use this software on
their phones. None of this software is completely free yet, but it's
free in the ways that Apple claims are threatening, and it doesn't
have DRM. Please don't follow those links if you're a malicious person
(or a drug dealer). Certainly don't look at this
one.

I and many other users already have the freedoms that Apple is trying
to destroy. We have these freedoms because software authors other than
Apple are willing to share their work and encourage other users and
authors to tinker with it. And thankfully, the anti-circumvention
provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which give
DRM its legal teeth, have so far failed to stamp out innovation even
in the case of restrictions like Apple's. This means that appealing to
copyright law to stop any sort of malicious action is completely
disingenuous. If my friend's fourteen-year-old brother can jailbreak
his dad's iPhone, I'm pretty sure Al-Qaeda can figure it out, no
matter what the Copyright Office decides.

But Apple isn't concerned with your safety or security anyway. They
are concerned with their profits. On the iPhone, even programs offered
at no charge by people who would voluntarily let you copy their work
as many times as you want, that only do something local on your own
phone, without accessing the network, are restricted by DRM. What does
that have to do with network security, or copyright?

Control allows a company to limit competition for ancillary
products. With Mac computers, anyone can sell software that does
anything. But Apple gets to decide who can sell what on the iPhone.
It can foster competition when it wants, and reserve itself a
monopoly position when it wants. And it can dictate terms to any
company that wants to sell iPhone software and accessories.

Apple claims throughout their comments that if users can modify their
devices, they might break them. They say, "The modifications to the
bootloader and the OS made to jailbreak a phone result in those
programs being used in ways that were never envisioned in their
creation." Yes, that's called innovation, and creativity. It is true
that when you tinker with things you can break them. While I
appreciate Apple's apparent concern for my well-being, I would request
that they leave those decisions and their consequences to me. I've
lived most of my life with a computer that I can tinker with, and
while it leads to endless hours of frustration, it's also the way I
and many other people learn how machines and software work. People
that don't want to tinker don't have to -- but who thinks that all
tinkering, or any meaningful kind of user freedom, must be made illegal
to protect people from hurting themselves?

Apple is right in another regard -- such freedom does come with some
social ills. For example, big companies that engage in socially
destructive unethical behaviors. It also comes with the reality that
individuals will sometimes do violent and destructive things. But we
don't respond to those threats by abandoning individual freedom, and
we certainly don't respond to them by investing the authority to
decide the limits of individual freedom in a single company through
their proprietary code.

If we don't choose freedom over fear in this situation, then we have a
whole lot more to rethink than just DMCA exemptions. Ironically, if we
had followed Apple's advice and failed to choose freedom in the past,
the iPhone and their OS X operating system might not have even been
possible. Flip through the licensing section of the iPhone's software.
You will find numerous free software
licenses. The iPhone is
built on a core of free software. It is built using programs that were
later modified by people around the world in "ways that were never
envisioned in their creation," which have now had their freedoms
stripped away by Apple.

This is a company happy to profit from the free software made
available by others, and from the creative, innovative process
engendered by software freedom and DRM-free computers, which now wants
to kick the ladder away to prevent anyone else from doing the same.
How is any kid supposed to learn to be a programmer if she can't
install her own programs on her own phone? How is the next Knuth
supposed to make computer science breakthroughs if he or she can't
have access to a computer that will let itself be programmed?

Greed like Apple's, which will stoop to the lowest kinds of threats to
justify crippling everyone else's potential, is the threat to our
fundamental security that we should be worried about.

But you know what? I agree with Apple. Don't jailbreak your iPhone.
Don't buy an iPhone at all. Don't give your money to a company that
turns around and gives it to lawyers like Fenwick & West to lobby your
government to restrict your freedom -- even if you can manage to
(rightfully) claim your freedom back after completing the transaction
with them.

Oh, and all this of course explains why you can't open the battery
cover on your iPhone. You might put a bomb in there!

You can help fight this nonsense by writing Tim Cook at
tcook@apple.com and letting him know that you won't buy an iPhone
because of its proprietary software and DRM -- and CC the
DefectiveByDesign.org campaign at info@defectivebydesign.org.